1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of transmitting and receiving an electronic mail. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of transmitting and receiving an electronic mail which a transmission person uses when wanting to make open the electronic mail on an appointed day.
2. Description of the Related Art
A transmitting person of an electronic mail can transmit the electronic mail at a time suitable for the transmitting person. A receiving person of an electronic mail can receive the electronic mail at any time, and can know its content by opening the electronic mail at a suitable time. If the receiving person opens the electronic mail on a day earlier than the appointed day, the receiving person may sometimes forget the content of the electronic mail on the appointed day. Moreover, the transmitting person may desire that the electronic mail will be opened on the appointed day, such as a congratulation mail for a birthday.
Conventionally, when wanting to have read the electronic mail on the appointed day, the transmitting person transmits the electronic mail on that day. However, such a transmitting method imposes a burden on the transmitting person. Even if the electronic mail is transmitted with an aim at that day, if a transmission condition at that time is accidentally poor, the electronic mail may not be sent to the receiving person. Moreover, even if the electronic mail can be transmitted on the appointed day, if the receiving person is busy, there may be a case that the electronic mail can not be immediately opened.
Such a communication terminal is well known which has a scheduler function of registering the various schedules in relation to a user as schedule data while they are correlated to the date and hour fixed for an exposition (the scheduled date and hour), the site of the exposition and the like, and reading out the schedule data as necessary of the user or at a time of an arrival of the schedule date and hour, and then displaying the schedule data for a check. In a communication terminal disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei, 11-341561), the schedule data read out from a self-scheduler is converted into mail data, and the mail data is transmitted to a destination terminal. Moreover, when mail data is received from a destination terminal, it is identified whether or not the mail data is schedule data. If the mail data is the schedule data, the mail data is converted into the schedule data, and the schedule data is registered in the scheduler.
In this communication terminal, the user can set and check the scheduler. Thus, an automatically registered message can be also checked prior to the date and hour of the schedule registration.
In an electronic mail apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei, 11-203215), when an electronic mail to which an appointed date and hour is appended is received and a current date and hour reaches the appointed date and hour, the electronic mail is automatically opened and displayed. In this electronic mail apparatus, a burden on a transmitting person can be reduced, and the content of the electronic mail can be surely reported to a receiving person. However, the electronic mail can be opened prior to the appointed day.
In a electronic mail system disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei, 11-168495), when an open period is appended to an electronic mail, and then an open of the electronic mail is required to a user on a receiving side, a communication terminal on the receiving side opens the electronic mail if it is in the open period, and deletes the electronic mail if it is not in the open period, and reports its fact to a communication terminal on a transmitting side, and the communication terminal on the transmitting side again transmits the electronic mail. In this electronic mail system, the electronic mail can be opened only when the open is requested in the open period. So, the terminal on the receiving side can make open the electronic mail surely in the open period. However, each time the receiving person requests the open in a period except the open period, the terminal on the transmitting side must transmit the electronic mail any number of times.
As a related art, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei, 9-8842) discloses “Electronic Mail System”. In this electronic mail system, when an operation such as an open, a cancellation of the open, a deletion, a storage or the like of a message is performed on a first communication terminal apparatus, a controller of a communication terminal apparatus changes a state of the message stored in a memory, and transmits a control message to a server unit. A controller of the server unit transfers the transferred control message to all other communication terminal apparatuses. Controllers of all the other communication terminal apparatuses update the states of the messages corresponding to identification information represented by the transferred control message. Thus, the states of the messages can be synchronized in all the communication terminal apparatuses.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei, 9-237254) discloses “Electronic Apparatus”. In this electronic apparatus, under such a condition that mail data received through a communication unit is stored in a reception data register within RAM and displayed on a touch panel, when a character string indicative of a date with regard to the mail included in the mail data is specified by a pen touch, it is judged whether or not the temporal element, such as “Today”, “Tomorrow”, “Day Of Next Week”, “Day Of Next Month” or the like, exists in the character string. In a case of the existence of the temporal element, a date with regard to the mail is specified from the temporal element based on a current date obtained on the basis of a clock signal form a clock unit, and directly captured and displayed as schedule data of a corresponding date after an actuation of a schedule mode.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei, 10-31635) discloses “Portable Electronic Mail Terminal”. In this portable electronic mail terminal, a radio communication unit receives a mail. A mail command decoder decodes the content of the mail, and then determines the display content. Its content is displayed on a display. When a user carries out an input operation in response to the display, in accordance with the input, the mail command decoder, if its input instructs a schedule memo call, indicates a date and an hour to a schedule manager, and instructs such that a schedule corresponding to the indication is displayed. Thus, the schedule of the date indicated in the mail is displayed on the display. Hence, the user operation can be simplified when the electronic mail is transmitted and received.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei, 10-269283) discloses “Information Managing Apparatus, Information Managing Method And Storage Media For Information Management”. This information managing apparatus is provided with a communicating unit, an automatic reply mail database, a mail analyzer and a mail replying unit. The communicating unit transmits and receives an electronic mail including sender information and title information representing a schedule object. The automatic reply mail database stores reply mail information including a predetermined pattern. The mail analyzer analyzes the title information of the reception mail received by the communicating unit and judges whether the content of the reception mail is a schedule report or another report. The mail replying unit, when the mail analyzer judges as the schedule report, adds the sender information of the reception mail extracted from the reception mail and intention information of a receiving person reflecting a schedule item of prestored schedule data, to the reply mail information of the predetermined pattern stored in the automatic reply mail database, and then generates a reply mail. The reply mail generated by this reply mail generator is automatically replied to the sender from the communicating unit.
Moreover, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei, 11-203217) discloses “Electronic Mail System, Method Of Transmitting And Receiving Electronic Mail And Storage Media”. In this electronic mail system, when an electronic mail to which song data composed of MIDI data is appended is transmitted from a transmission terminal, a server computer stores this data in a memory, and reports a fact of a mail incoming to a reception terminal. The reception terminal, when receiving it, accesses to the server computer to read out a reception mail. Then, when the data is received from the server computer, character data and picture data among the reception data are displayed on a display together with a reproduction button. The MIDI data among the reception data is automatically reproduced and sounded.